


Help Me

by FireflyFish



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Genre: Heavy Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-03
Updated: 2016-10-03
Packaged: 2018-08-19 06:37:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8194009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireflyFish/pseuds/FireflyFish
Summary: Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi fought to the death on Mustafar, light versus dark, Jedi versus Sith. They were perfectly matched until they weren't and Skywalker was cut down in his arrogance. 
All seemed lost, light, love, and hope.
And then Anakin cried out for help...
An AU ending inspired by this amazing artwork by themadknightuniverse.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hannibaquila](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hannibaquila/gifts).



“You underestimate my power.”

“Don’t try it.”

_Please don’t try it. For the love of the Force! Anakin, stop! Please! I don’t want to do this! Don’t make me do this!_

Obi-Wan Kenobi watched in a kind of numb horror as Anakin Skywalker coiled his legs and summoned the Force to his command. He knew what Anakin was going to do, had done what Anakin was doing before on Naboo when Obi-Wan had faced off against Darth Maul. There were days when he could barely remember the duel with the Zabrak, just hazy impressions of feelings, grief and the blinding white rage at Qui-Gon’s death.

And then there were moments like now, when Obi-Wan could recall every twitch, every fiber of muscle and sinew moving like ghosts along his synapses as he watched Anakin try to outmaneuver him, to keep the duel going, to let more precious time slip away, to let Padme grow closer and closer to death.

_Know what you must do._ Yoda’s voice scraped across his mind and heart, rending his soul in pieces.

Anakin flew through the fiery sky, a beautiful blackbird with eyes of sulphur and for a moment, the audacity of that young man took Obi-Wan’s breath away.

_Do not make me. I cannot._ Obi-Wan begged the Force, existing for a moment out of time, pleading with eternity and the universe for another way out. For even a quarter of the luck and consideration it had always given its favored son.

The Force whispered back, cruel and unfeeling. _You must and you will and you have._

Blue-white plasma flashed through the crimson night and Obi-Wan felt, heard the scream of severed nerves and felt the heavy, lifeless weight of limbs landing in the pitch black soil. His own limbs locked up in pain, the link between the two seizing with agony.

And then his heart turned to ash in his breast and a grey cloud of words slipped free, carried up into the air with the embers of burning fabric. Each word was a truth, spoke with world-shattering finality.

“You were the Chosen One!” _I suppose… I did believe in that legend after all. I believed in you, Anakin._

“You were supposed to destroy the Sith, not join them!” _I was your master, your partner, your brother! I… I love you. I let you break my heart and morals and bones because I loved you. How can you be Sith? How can you not be with me? How can we be enemies?_

“You were to bring balance to the Force, not leave it in Darkness!” _I don’t understand. How could I have been so wrong? So blind?_

_You didn’t even tell me you were going to be a father… I… I would have been so proud..._

Padme.

He had to get back to Padme, to save her, to see if she could be saved, if the unborn child in her womb could be saved.

Obi-Wan turned away from Anakin, from his best friend and brother, from the lie sold to him by a long-dead man and faced the brutal dark reality before him.

Obi-Wan Kenobi had struck down Anakin Skywalker. He had torn them asunder, plucked the feathers from his brother’s wings and left him on the black sand to die.

Obi-Wan had not been merciful. He had been cruel and methodical, bloodless in his strikes. After all, he had left Anakin’s cybernetic hand unsevered.

For the first time in his life, Obi-Wan knew shame as he heard the groans of pain and the faint, keening whine as the creature who had been Anakin but was now something else tried to climb up the bank with one smoldering arm.

_I have failed. Anakin, Padme, the Order and the Galaxy. I have failed them all._

No. He could still save Padme and her child. He could still do that. They were not beyond hope. Not yet.

Obi-Wan reached down to pick up Anakin’s saber and took a step up the sandy hill.

“... master… Help me…”

_What?_

Obi-Wan turned around, his eyes round with shock.

“Help me, Master?”

* * *

 

Anakin remembered the jump, the coil and the release, the triumphant roar of the Force as he flew, no soared through the air, higher than he could have ever imagined. His confidence pounded in his heart and pumped through his veins like liquid fire.

He remembered the arch, a perfect union of a body in motion and the forces of gravity clawing at him, thwarted by the Force, his cunning, and his skill. He twisted in midair and the rest was just memories of the hundreds, thousands of times he had done this before in practice halls, on the battlefield.

At Obi-Wan’s side. Never against him, never to destroy him.

The landing was just letting gravity catch up.

And then there was light, a hissing hum of violence, and the light burned him.

The light was fire and the fire moved faster than he had ever believed possible. Than it had any right to. The light belonged to an old man, exhausted and broken and he was better than that.

He was Anakin Skywalker, no, Darth Vader and he was the most powerful Jedi ever.

And his master, his brother struck him down and then there was too much, too fast.

Fire.

Pain.

Loss.

Imbalance.

He crashed chest first and rolled and slid down the embankment nothing more than a broken bird, skidding to a stop a breath away from the mouth of hell.

Anakin moved to push himself upright, to climb back up the bank but his limbs were gone. Panic and terror gripped his mind as he realized just what had happened, What Obi-Wan had done to him. He looked up and saw the scattered remains of his form and screamed.

_No! This… this can't be! This isn't possible! I'm stronger than he is! Faster than he is! I have saved the Galaxy and destroyed the Jedi Order!_

_Why can't I beat him? Why aren't I strong enough?_

But a smaller voice, not the low growl of Vader sobbed in the center of the storm of embers and ash. _How could he do this to me? Master! Why have you forsaken me?_

Anakin groaned as he tried to pull himself up the bank with only his remaining hand, tried to use the Force to push himself back to safety but the Force fled from him, as if horrified by what he had become. He reached for his anger, tried to use his torment to fuel the Dark side but that slipped through his fingers like the volcanic sand beneath him. Palpatine had sworn the Dark side would make him invincible. That he would be able to change his fate and Padme’s.

He lied.

Obi-Wan and the Light was still stronger than he was, was still tall and proud and standing over him. Lecturing him even now.

_How could you? I thought… I thought you loved me._

The heat was growing nearer as his struggles upset the sand beneath him as gravity, steady and merciless, dragged him closer to the red hot maw of death.

“You were the Chosen One!”

_No. I was your Padawan and then your partner. I never wanted that title._

“You were supposed to destroy the Sith not join them!”

_The Jedi betrayed me, betrayed my faith in them. They drove Ahsoka away. They took you from me. Placed you on the Council and made you lie for them. They took and they took until I had nothing left._

_And then they wanted me to give up Padme and our child and the Sith told me I could have what everyone else in the Galaxy had. Love. A family. A home._

“Bring balance to the Force! Not leave it in darkness!”

**_Kriff the karking Force! I hate it! I hate you! I hate Palpatine and the Order and the Republic and the Galaxy!_ **

**_I HATE YOU!_ **

_Save me… please?_

Lightsaber amputations were swift and brutal, with little blood loss but the internal trauma was no less horrendous than by amputation with a blade. The body struggles to process the lost limb, or limbs. It sends signals to hands and feet long gone, desperately trying to process the phantom agony it cannot stop, having lost control. There is inflammation, swelling and clotting, blood pooling and congealing against improperly closed wounds and the pain is relentless.

Anakin knew this from experience once before.

The worst was yet to come.

Vader demanded defiance, demanded he roar and fling himself to a proud death, lame and broken, drowning in the river of fire and sparks below.

_That is what a true Sith would do._ Vader’s voice said. _Deny your enemy the honor of your death._

The words escaped past Vader like steam escaping from a grill, faint, broken gasps for rescue from a drowning person.

“Master… help me…”

Had Anakin really said that? Had those words come from him? Was he so weak as to beg Obi-Wan Kenobi of all people for aid?

Vader raged and stormed, twisting in his gut, trying to close his throat with bile and fury, tried to summon the darkness to bolster the weakness of his spirit. The pain was growing, throbbing, pulsing and crying out for relief, for unconsciousness. For death if that would make it all stop.

_Do not give in to this! Fight! You are Sith now! The Jedi are weak! You have destroyed them! You do not need his pity or his mercy! Marshall your rage!_

But Vader’s words were too little too late.

Anakin Skywalker did not want to die like this.

“Help me, Master.”

Tears fell from his eyes, hot and scalding on his cheeks. The fire was so close he could almost feel the flames licking at his legs, or where his legs were supposed to have been. It hurt so much and there was no way to stop it, to center himself and push the feelings away into the Force, to call upon cool, soothing energy to still the screaming neurons that would never been put together again.

Anakin looked up at Obi-Wan, a pleading gasp for mercy, for aid or for a swift, clean death.

_Please… Please Obi-Wan…_

When Obi-Wan did not move, did not speak, Anakin bowed his head and a storm of grief and betrayal overwhelmed him and he lowered his face, a howl of rage rising up from the pit of darkness and fear that had given birth to the Dragon, to Vader, to the voice that whispered in his ear and gnawed at his heart.

_Fool. You know better than to beg a Jedi for help. He will leave you here to die, to burn to death as he runs away with Padme to steal away everything that was yours by right to…_

Then there were arms around him, under his shoulders, pulling him up and away from the river of molten light. Anakin heard a soft grunt and felt strong wiry arms tense around him as he was pulled further up the embankment, each tug sending a lancing arc of bladed pain along his nerves and he cried out.

He saw his boots in the sand and then oh Sweet Force! No. He couldn’t look anymore as another far-away grunt and tug brought Anakin and his savior to a stop, the agony nearly whiting out his world.

Anakin blinked at a familiar brown boot that had not been cleaned or shined in months, with a scar from where Obi-Wan had kicked a battle droid in the face and nearly broken his foot. There was a leg wrapped in Jedi regulation beige and then an arm wrapped around him, tenderly, gently turning him in place until he was resting like babe in arms, encircled by Obi-Wan’s lean form.

For a moment, there was only the sound of Obi-Wan breathing on Mustafar, as if the unstable moon had been exhausted by their duel as well.

Shock and exhaustion warred within Anakin and he found himself wrapping his remaining hand around Obi-Wan’s arm, trying to anchor himself, to this world, this moment, to his friend. He rolled his head up and back, trying to make eye contact with Obi-Wan, to understand what had just happened. What had changed in the other man to cause all of this.

“Why?” Anakin asked, tears burning down his cheeks and washing away the soot and sand.

Obi-Wan stared out into the black ashen night, tears pouring down his cheeks. His gaze was distant, lost to Anakin as if there was something out there only Obi-Wan could see.

“I… I love you. You are my brother.” Obi-Wan’s voice was broken and muted. He blinked a few times but his gaze continued to fix on the far side of the river, starring at Force only knew what.

But it didn’t matter.

Obi-Wan had saved him. He pulled him from the mouth of hell and carried him to safe ground. In spite of everything Anakin had done, had said and spat at him, he had come when asked for. Even now, at the end of civilization, when even the Dark had forsaken Anakin, when even Vader demanded his death, Obi-Wan Kenobi had come for him.

He loved him.

After every horrible, monstrous act, Obi-Wan Kenobi still loved Anakin Skywalker.

Anakin felt his heart break and shatter, burst into flames in his chest until all that was left was ashes.

What had he done?

The sheer enormity of his crimes against the galaxy piled up one on top of the other until they loomed over him like a mountain range made of obsidian, razor sharp and deadly. It stood between Anakin and everything he had lost in his fear-induced madness and grief.

Could he make it through that?

Would anyone be waiting on the other side?

Where would they go? Was Padme all right? Would she ever forgive him? Would Obi-Wan ever forgive him? What about Ahsoka? He had left half his legion with her. Stars! What about Rex?

They were moving again, Obi-Wan shifting beneath him and hoisting him up and against his shoulder, pain knifing through the hand and feet that were no longer a part of him. Anakin feared it would never, ever stop. His punishment would be to forever walk over broken blades, a lame broken thing.

“Obi-Wan?”

“Yes?”

“What do we do now?”

Obi-Wan stopped walking, taking a few deep breaths before continuing on, his boots crunching against volcanic sand and then duracrete.

“I don’t know, Anakin. I just don’t know.”

Anakin looked away for a moment before speaking again, his voice soft and trembling. “Will you… will you ever forgive me?”

Obi-Wan blinked as if startled and turned slowly to look down at Anakin, his expression exhausted and bone weary. His eyes were almost green in the yellow light of Mustafar but there was something there that was not hate or anger or unbearable sorrow. It was not strong or bright but it flickered, the flame of a candle against the dark as Obi-Wan spoke.

“In time, Anakin. Just… give me time.”


End file.
